This
week, Israeli President Shimon Peres told a Japanese newspaper that Israel was
planning to present an outline of a final offer to the Palestinians that will
include everything they asked for, including the West Bank.
The
plan, drafted by Peres, would evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly
the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory
that undisputedly is Israel's according to the international community.
Peres
told the Nikkei, a Japanese business daily, "To work out the details (of
the political if not the geographical outline of a future Palestinian state)
will take more time, but (as for) principles, yes, we can achieve an
agreement" before the autumn peace conference, he said.
According
to Peres, his plan will lead to "peaceful coexistence" with the
Palestinians. Instead of achieving it by extending an olive branch of peace,
Peres' plan will extend a pen and Israel's checkbook.
"We
shall go in a policy of two tracks, economic development and political
negotiations, one complementary to the other but not dependent upon it," he
said.
Peres
proposes handing 97 percent of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) over to the
Palestinians, with 3 percent to be retained by Israel for existing border
settlements. To "compensate" the Palestinians for the 3 percent, it
will surrender some Israeli cities north of Tel Aviv, making up the difference.
The plan would include the ethnic cleansing of
Jews from the West Bank, as well as the cleansing of Jews from the Israeli
cities along the coast.
Peres evidently met in secret with the
Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad last week, where he presented the plan
to Fayyad and sent a copy to the European Union.
In 1978, an Israeli politician wrote, "The
establishment of such a [Palestinian] state means the inflow of combat-ready
Palestinian forces (more than 25,800 men under arms) into Judea and Samaria;
this force, together with the local youth, will double itself in a short time.
It will not be short of weapons or other [military] equipment, and in a short
space of time, an infrastructure for waging war will be set up in Judea, Samaria
and the Gaza Strip. Israel will have problems in preserving day-to-day security,
which may drive the country into war or undermine the morale of its citizens. In
time of war, the frontiers of the Palestinian state will constitute an excellent
staging point for mobile forces to mount attacks on infrastructure installations
vital for Israel's existence, to impede the freedom of action of the Israeli
air-force in the skies over Israel, and to cause bloodshed among the population.
In areas adjacent to the frontier-line."
The author's understanding of the situation 30
years ago made him sound almost prophetic. He outlined, in precise detail,
exactly the result of the policies that Peres policies have achieved so far. But
that prophet from 1978 was Shimon Peres himself, writing in his book,
"Tomorrow is Now."
Peres should read it. He might learn something.